Seán F. Lemass

Seán F. Lemass (born July 15, 1899, Dublin, Ire.—died May 11, 1971, Dublin) was an Irish patriot and politician, who served as taoiseach (prime minister) of Ireland from 1959 to 1966.

As early as the age of 16, Lemass became a freedom fighter in the streets of Dublin, engaging in the Easter Rising (April 1916) and other hostilities and landing in jail again and again. He opposed the establishment of the Irish Free State as a dominion under the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and became a member of the headquarters staff of the Irish Republican Army in the civil war of 1922–23. He played a key role in persuading Eamon de Valera to found a new republican party, Fianna Fáil, in 1926. After de Valera rose to the premiership in 1932, Lemass held portfolios in all his cabinets for 21 of the next 27 years, notably as minister of industry and commerce and then as tánaiste (deputy prime minister).

When de Valera became president in 1959, Lemass inherited the office of taoiseach. Under him the country took a more outward-looking approach, and he especially pressed for Ireland’s entry into the European Economic Community (EEC, now the European Community, embedded in the European Union) and for reconciliation with Northern Ireland. Ill health, however, forced him to relinquish the leadership of his party in 1966, and he withdrew from politics in 1969. His greatest legacy, Ireland’s membership in the EEC, was not secured until 1973, after his death.